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| Brighton i360 |
Youth Service Summer Update
The Youth Service had a busy and successful summer, starting off with the vulnerable young people’s team delivering the annual ‘Youth Art’s Award in a Week’ programme. Eight young people completed their Bronze Award, in addition one young woman completed her silver, completing the GCSE requirements she needed to get into her chosen college course in September.
The detached team with our specialist sexual health and substance misuse workers continued sessions throughout the afternoons and evenings across the parks, with particular focus on the groups of young people at the Level. They also had a presence at this year’s Pride, supporting young people to keep safe, giving them access to water, food, sun cream and support as part of the Pride Buddy Scheme in partnership with RUOK?
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Pride Buddies
with the youth bus
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CPS - Corporate Parenting Strategy, Your Choice
Programme Graffiti
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| 'Your Choice'event held over the summer |
If you would like any further information on the work of the youth service, please contact Chris Parfitt chris.parfitt@brighton-hove.gcsx.gov.uk 01273 294252.
I am delighted to say that we have now received the report for both Hove Junior School and St Margaret’s Primary following their inspections in July and they both awarded Good. Congratulations to the teams at both schools. Ofsted were in St Nicholas Primary on 14th-15th of September, and St Bartholomew’s Primary on the 21st -22nd of September. I look forward to reporting on their outcomes in the next blog.
This October Brighton & Hove City Council is promoting an anti-stigma mental health campaign. The #IAMWHOLE campaign is being launched by the NHS in partnership with the YMCA and Brighton & Hove City Council on Monday 10 October - World Mental Health Day 2016. #IAMWHOLE is an innovative new anti-stigma mental health campaign, designed to reach out to young people aged 13-25, with a range of activities which will take place from 10 October. The messages will also be shared with parents, teachers and employers through national and regional media coverage and the use of ‘Schools Against Stigma’ workshop materials. Jordan Stephens from UK hip-hop duo The Rizzle Kicks is the figurehead for the campaign. In advance people can show support for the campaign by signing up to the #IAMWHOLE thunderclap https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/46725-iamwhole. This online thunderclap will use social media to raise awareness as messages are shared far and wide at 11am on World Mental Health Day. Please have a look.
Headteacher’s Induction Monday 12 September
I had the pleasure of attending our Headteachers Induction this month. Each year, all new headteachers, acting heads and heads of school are invited to the authority run welcome lunch and induction session. As well as the opportunity to meet with fellow new heads across the city, the induction programme includes a number of informative sessions with key staff within our Families, Children and Learning teams.
Pinaki Ghoshal, Executive Director of the Families directorate opened the event, welcoming attendees in their new leadership roles. The first sessions outlined the key priorities, shared vision and strong partnership working across the family of schools in Brighton & Hove and we provided more details about the services and support we provide to schools. There was also a fantastic insightful session from a headteacher in the city. Feedback from everyone who attended was positive and it was a delight to see the enthusiasm, engagement and commitment of our future leaders.
A warm welcome to Kate Williams at Longhill High, John McKee at Patcham High and Mary Ellinger at Royal Spa. We also have a couple of acting Headteachers this year: Vicky Phillips at Coombe Road Primary and Jonathan Hancock covering maternity leave at St Mary's Catholic Primary.We are also lucky enough to have new Heads of School for Balfour Primary Sally Geard and Teresa Hill, for City Academy Whitehawk Mark Church, and for Hove Juniors David Swindells and Nicole Reeves.
PACA Awards Ceremony
On the evening of the 15 September I visited the University of Sussex to join school staff, parents and young people from PACA for their amazing annual award ceremony. Katie Scott the school principal led the event with enthusiasm clearly showing how proud she was of the success of all the young people receiving awards. It was also so pleasing to see the massive progress some young people have made and the resilience of some to strive for success.
Amaze Launch Event
Local Authority staff, partners and parents joined Amaze to launch their fantastic new fact sheets in the Brighton & Hove Mayor's Office on Tuesday 13 September. The fact sheets cover a wide range of subjects offering advice on many different topics like short breaks, claiming benefits, sleep issues, adaptations, Special Education Needs (SEN) and many others. If you haven't already seen just how wide ranging the topics covered are, you can download all 40 factsheets at: http://amazebrighton.org.uk/ resources/publications/fact-sheets. Please take a look.
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| Amaze launch with Mayor |
Welcome to our Newly Qualified Teachers
We’re supporting over 160 Newly Qualified Teachers on induction this year and earlier this month we held welcome events for both primary and secondary NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers). As well as the speeches from local authority colleagues, NQTs also appreciated hearing from teachers who have just finished their induction and gave advice about what to prioritise to ensure they make the most of the opportunities and support available to them. I’d particularly like to thank Clare Shucksmith and Sophie Brown from Benfield, who talked at our primary event, and Kayleigh Lambert and James Rayment from Varndean who spoke to secondary colleagues. Their advice and enthusiasm was spot on! Sharon MacKenzie and colleagues from the School Workforce Development team continue to develop their support to schools in this area and we now have a one-stop-shop for NQT support. All registrations, assessments, resources and training opportunities are now available on BEEM, which has been receiving really positive feedback from the NQTs and their induction tutors.
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| Welcome event for Newly Qualified Teachers |
Snow Dogs
Brighton & Hove takes the 'lead' on Snow Dogs sculptures across the city. I hope you and your children and young people are enjoying spotting the fabulous sculptures across the city. We have been working closely with Wild in Art and Martlets Hospice to bring ‘Snowdogs by the Sea’, a public art event to Brighton & Hove that opened last week. The event features a number of individually designed artworks based on Raymond Briggs’s Snowdog. Each Snowdog has been decorated by local artists, schools & communities – all designed to reflect and celebrate Brighton’s rich cultural offer and vibrant personality.
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| One of the Snowdogs |
The trail encourages people to be ‘tourists in their own town’ and also invite visitors to explore, discover and celebrate the town. Integral to the event, is a city-wide education programme showcasing young people’s creativity. The schools trail comprises of medium-sized 'Snowpups' and ‘Snowdogs’ which will run alongside the main trail animating indoor spaces such as libraries, museums and art centres. As part of this campaign, the finale will be a charity auction of the sculptures with the aim of raising over £100,000 for Martlets Hospice.
Music Across the City Over the Summer
Over 400 children and young people attended the Music Summer School this year with courses including an Infant Violin Fun Day, Wind Band, singing, music technology, and band workshops. Every course culminated in a celebration performance, with more than 20 summer school concerts taking place during July, showcasing the great progress made by these young musicians. In early July the Brighton Youth Orchestra and Big Band visited Slovenia and Austria, performing an eclectic programme of music to appreciative audiences. Both groups include young musicians from secondary schools across the city, many of whom will go on to study at university or Music College this term.
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| Brighton Youth Orchestra |
Early Years
Well done to My First Friends Nursery and ToyBox Pre-School which are the latest Early Years settings in the city to have achieved their Bronze award from Modeshift STARS. Modeshift STARS is a national awards scheme which has been established to recognise schools & Early Years settings that have demonstrated excellence in supporting cycling, walking and other forms of sustainable travel (see www.modeshiftstars.org).
My First Friends and ToyBox have been working hard over the last few months on initiatives which are encouraging the children, families and staff to travel more actively, safely and sustainably to their settings. Some of the activities they have taken part in are: joining in Early Years Walking Week; creating a ‘5 Minute Walking. Zone map’ and encouraging everyone to walk at least the last five minutes to their settings; taking the children for walks in the local environment during which they actively discuss road safety.
Their success follows on from that of the three Footsteps Nurseries in Hove, Portslade and Hollingbury who all gained their Bronze awards earlier this year. Footsteps are now working towards the Silver and Gold awards, and a number of other settings across the city are working towards achieving their Bronze Modeshift STARS awards later this year. I am excited to see that the dedication and work of our early years settings is helping a generation of children and families to embrace active and safer travel from an early age.
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| Footsteps receiving their Bronze award |
Apprenticeship Awareness
Over the next nine months, an apprenticeship awareness programme will be run in secondary schools across the city, promoting apprenticeships and traineeships locally. There will also be a wider network of apprenticeship ambassadors from a range of sectors who will be available to visit secondary and primary schools to promote apprenticeships. Please contact Georgia Easteal if you would like a visit from an ambassador to talk to students, parents or teachers: Georgia.Easteal@brighton-hove.gov.uk. Georgia is one of our apprentices, who joined the council straight from Longhill last year, and is starting her second apprenticeship with the Skills and Employment team this month.
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| Georgia Easteal, Apprentice |
Goodbye and thank you
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| Gill Manton |
Brighton & Hove’s School & College Leaders’ Conference
Building Leadership Capacity, Bramber House, University of Sussex
Wednesday 4 October 2016, 9am – 1pm
I am looking forward to joining you all and hearing from our keynote speaker Christine Gilbert CBE who will talk about ‘leading in a school led system‘. Professor Christine Gilbert CBE was Chief Inspector, Education, Children’s Services & Schools at Ofsted from 2006 until 2011. Prior to this, she was Chief Executive of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. She joined the council in 1997 as Corporate Director, Education, having been Director of Education in the London Borough of Harrow. Christine spent 18 years teaching in schools, eight of them as a secondary school headteacher.
We will also hear from Adam Wright, Psychological Skills Mentor about how to optimise whole school performance. From the Olympic podium into the classroom, an opportunity to learn how to optimise whole school performance, through the powerful mind management model that has helped support the success of British cycling teams and other team GB sports.
To book, please email schools.training@brighton-hove.gov.uk, tel: 01273 293511 or you can book by logging in to BEEM http://www.beem.org.uk/Training
Jo
Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons
Find details here Twitter accounts across all council services.
